Sweetheart and I were playing a card game one night last week. It's what we do when we don't have a dance or other place to go--and there's nothing on TV that we want to watch.
The game is called 2500 and the goal is to reach a score of 2500 or more before the other player(s). I don't remember who dealt first, but Sweetheart started laying down wild cards like they were jelly beans. He had 600 points before we even started to play.
I was shocked! I was demoralized! It looked like it would be impossible for me to win.
I folded up my cards, laid them down and said, "I quit!"
I was only joking, though, because we had a long way to go to reach the goal. I gathered up my cards and we continued to play. We kept going back and forth. Sweetheart would win a hand and I would win a hand.
What do you know! I won the game. It was a 60-point spread, but a win is a win.
The next night we played again. The game started the same way as the night before. This time Sweetheart got 640 points on the first deal. I was tempted to be demoralized again, but I remembered the favorable outcome from the night before.
It was a repeat of the previous night's game. First Sweetheart would win a hand and then I would win a hand. Only this time Sweetheart won--by 65 points!
That just goes to show that we are equally yoked.
We face seemingly impossible tasks almost every day. Sometimes, when I'm taking my daily walk on Sunny Lane, I look at the top of the hill, where our house is, and wonder if I will make it back up there. I always do, but sometimes it's a struggle.
It helps if I don't focus so much on the goal and more on the means of getting there. Slow and steady wins the race. The story of the tortoise and the hare proves that.
Recently, a woman joined our line dance group. She had never line danced before. She was so bewildered she wanted to give up. The rest of us told her we were once bothered and bewildered when we first started, but we stuck with it and she should, too. Now she is catching on and enjoying it. She's glad she didn't quit.
Sometimes the state of affairs in the world today can be demoralizing. In fact, it may look like we have lost our morals. However we choose to respond to life's situations, we can't be quitters.
Even though we would like people and circumstances to be different, the fact is that each of us is responsible for each of us. We have to be the best we can be.
And, even if we win and lose along the way, we can still be winners in the end.
Dorothy is the author of two books—“Miles and Miracles” and “Getting It All Together “. You can purchase a book or make a comment by emailing her at dorothybutzknight@gmail.com